Tuesday, June 18, 2013

MAN OF STEEL: Spoilery rambling notes…

Unordered bubbling thoughts, first impressions, and notes to self on the film follow. SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS!

Nice to see some familiar faces from BSG and DOLLHOUSE on the big screen.

I didn't like Supes making his debut because of Earth's first encounter w Krypton. Maybe there could've been a year or two for him to be doing his thing in his Kryptonian El-suit before Zod and company could arrive at Earth. Or for the scout ship to broadcast its distress signal.

Lois following Clark into the scout ship. Not great. Maybe she could've found it after Clark had had it a while, perhaps located in a remote DESERT location, and THAT would trigger the signal? And also cause Clark to relocate the ship to its final Fortress Of Solitude arctic position.

How awful is the Jesus stuff? The Jesus year age was not so bad. It's a good year for a person to get some stuff done. Consulting with a priest during a moment of crisis? He did grow up in Kansas around miracle-believing people, so I'll allow it. The floating out of Zod's orbiting ship with arms outstretched? Okay, that was pretty frickin conspicuous and annoying. Who the hell is that for?

I like that Kryptonian history includes an age of space exploration and colonization. It opens up a lot of possibilities for surviving Kryptonians Out There, but hopefully not a well that gets visited every movie. It offered a pretty ingenious solution for the Fortress of Solitude—an exploratory scout ship that wound up crash landing on Earth millennia ago and discovered present day encased in arctic ice. Did it *have* to have a Genesis Chamber? Couldn't the scout ship have simply been fully automated? Designed to relay data on the environment and then build a suitable settlement for a colonial ship that would follow?

Kryptonian scout ship under the ice.

Smart. Before going to sleep under the ice, the scout ship would have transmitted data about Earth back to Krypton, allowing Jor-El to choose this planet specifically for his son. Having this Kryptonian tech on Earth should've made for an ingenious ready-to-move-in Fortress of Solitude.

Not-so-smart. Destroying the scout ship in the extended battle with Zod. Including a Genesis Chamber in the scout ship, which could birth more Kryptonians as needed. That kind of necessitates destroying it. Might make for an interesting origin of a Bizarro, tho.

Destroying Metropolis.

Smart. The only smart part of this is the summer blockbuster factor. The destruction porn of it (a la STAR TREK: INTO DARKNESS).

Not-so-smart. Giving no clear indication that there was anything like an organized/ordered evacuation of the city. Superman *not* using his super senses to make sure a certain part of the city was already clear.

Killing Zod.

Smart. I don't love it, but okay, let's go with it. Byrne's Supes did it. A Superman for a harsher, realer world? A decision that Supes has to live with, one that may come back to haunt him in the future (movie?).

Not-so-smart. After letting hundreds if not thousands die in the destruction of Metropolis caused by his fight w Zod, these four people in Metropolis Grand Central somehow matter more?

More later…

[Edit/added 6/25. More rambling and starts of thoughts…]

Missing:

1. An explanation of Kryptonian military exosuits vs. yellow-sun enhanced strength and atmosphere-enhanced abilities. How much of Zod and co's strength and abilities in battle vs. Kal came from their Kryptonian gear and how much, if any, came from the Earthican environment?

How long does a Kryptonian need to be exposed to Earth's atmosphere to exhibit super senses? Given Zod and co's reactions to having their helmet's damaged, not very long. Why the delay in Clark's reaction? I'd say hormones. It seems ot be the ratio of gases, not an amount of pollutants or particulates (which would be interesting over time).

How long does a Kryptonian need to be exposed to yellow sun radiation to exhibit super strength? Clark doesn't do it until he's lived for several years on the Earth, right? Or does that happen at the same time that his enhanced senses kick in? I'm guessing he didn't have super strength as a baby, but we do see him exhibit it when he holds himself from whomping those bullies, a few years after the x-ray vision overload in grade school.

Kryptonians are nourished/powered/energized by stellar radiation. The rule seems to be that Krypton's red sun's radiation offers less nourishment than Earth's yellow sun's radiation, which supercharges a Kryptonian. Does Kal store it like a battery? If he's cut off from the sun's radiation for long enough, will his super strength disappear?

Does Kal's super suit allow him to fly?

2. A training montage. Maybe Jonathan Kent could've come up w something clever for Clark as a kid/teen. Taekwondo before his enhanced strength kicked in? But better still would've been something Jor-El included on his flash drive. A danger room vs. Krypto-nanite opponents set up in the scout ship. Maybe even better than that, a direct download. Zod's crew had the tech to pick at Kal and Lois's brains while they were captives. Jor-El could've trained Kal in a Krypto-Matrix. Cuz, how the frack is an untrained Supes gonna go up against trained soldiers with matching or greater strength?

3. Any indication that Metropolis was being evacuated, and/or a moment when Kal scans the cityscape with his x-ray vision to find the least inhabited area/buildings to take the fight.

Interesting:

1. Metropolis is on the opposite side of the earth from the center of the Indian ocean.

Smart:

1. Krypton's age of space exploration/colonization. Allows for the planting of remnants of Kryptonian tech throughout space, and specifically, for a dormant scout ship on Earth. This scout ship would have provided Jor-El with the data he used to choose Earth as the adopted homeworld fo his son. It also provided a potential home or shelter for Kal-El on Earth, one which would be compatible with any Kryptonian tech that could be sent with him. A pretty perfect foundation for a Fortress of Solitude!